The simple house of Mien, the late chairman of Bac Trach commune, Bo Trach district, is located in a small village next to the Gianh River in Bo Trach district in Quang Binh province. Two months have elapsed since the day Mien died because of Whitmore disease contracted during the days he was exposed to the rain and floods.

Phan Thanh Mien (first right) was a talented and good official

Rescuing others

Holding a child in front of the house with the imprint of the historic flood, Nguyen Van Chung, 34, said the floodwater rose up very rapidly at the dawn of October 19.

The electricity was cut and it was completely dark. People were caught in a downpour and surrounded by strong water flow. Many families got stuck and shouted for help.

“In the midst of panic, I saw uncle Mien wading in the flood current which was up to his neck, together with some other men, pushing small boats to every house and carrying people to a primary school, 200 meters away, to escape the flood,” Chung recalled.

“He shouted ‘Anyone need help?’. And my wife and my two children were carried to the boat safely. I swam after them. All my family members escaped the flood,” he said.

Many other people, like Chung and his family members, reached shelter safely with Mien’s support.

Interrupting Chung, Phan Thi Xuan, a local woman, said: “We loved Mien and we were grateful to him. He was a good man, but why didn't he have good luck?”

Xuan lives opposite of Chung’s house, raising four grandchildren. Her son lives and works in the south. When the flood rushed down, with a small junk, Mien saved all her family members from the flood.

“I remember him wearing a raincoat wet to his skin. His face turned pale because he was soaked in floodwaters for a long time while rescuing people. He suffered from a disease and died just because he saved us. We will never forget him,” she said.

Phan Van Dong, head of Hamlet 4, said before the flood rushed down, Mien came to every hamlet asking local authorities to be on duty to ensure safety for people.

When the floods rose up, Mien ran across the commune and borrowed two coracles and one junk, then gave them to the teams to rescue people. When wading into the water, he crashed into the fence which injured his leg. He came back to the commune’s clinic to dress the wound and then continued to rescue people.

“He spent sleepless nights, and stayed under incessant rain, so the wound had bacterial contamination and he passed away. We have lost a talented and good person,” Dong said.

The plan that never came true

Wearing a mourning headband, Nguyen Thi Oanh, 47, the wife of Mien, said her husband could not say anything to her before he died. They were married nearly 30 years ago and have three daughters.

Oanh said on the day when the flood rose up, Mien stopped by for a while before he left to help locals. She had to manage to rearrange things to cope with the flood.

“On October 18 afternoon, he returned home and told me to manage everything myself, because he was busy helping other people, because heavy floods were anticipated,” she recalled.

Phan Thanh Mien is one of the 14 Inspiring Characters honored by VietNamNet’s readers in 2020. However, he could not be present at the campaign medal awards ceremony because he passed away after his great flood relief efforts earlier this year.

“He left and only came back after two days, having a meal in a hurry, and left again. At that moment, his right knee was injured and he had a mild fever,” she said.

Two days later, when the fever became more serious, he went to the commune’s clinic to have injections. He refused to be hospitalized, saying that he still had work to do. Only on October 23, when he became seriously ill, did he go to Bo Trach Hospital near his house.

As he continued suffering from high fever, he was transferred to the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Hospital in Dong Hoi City and then to Hue City Central Hospital. Doctors said he suffered from Whitmore disease, the first case the hospital had received so far.

Nguyen Thi Oanh, Mien's wife, and their youngest daughter

“When I went to the sickroom and saw him, I asked him if he loved me and our daughters, and tears fell from his eyes,” she recalled.

On November 11, she heard from her son in law that her husband had died. It was the first and last time that Oanh had taken her husband to hospital.

The couple had agreed that they would save money to raise their daughter and then upgrade the house with its leaky roofs which was built 23 years ago. However, the plan never occurred.

Every man and woman in the commune said they loved the good civil servant, but they could not do anything more for him. They just hoped that Mien would be recognized as a martyr. 

Ha An

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